As reported by Axios, Trump - who constantly complains that the DOJ has been “weaponized” against him with “bogus’ prosecutions all secretly directed by Joe Biden (even though Biden has no control of Merrik Garland on Special Counsel Jack Smith, no control of Alvin Bragg, no control of Letitia James and no control of Fani Willis) - is apparently planning to do exactly the same thing against Joe Biden once he’s regains power in the White House again.
Republicans' impeachment probe of President Biden is unraveling because of a lack of evidence — but their work could become the basis for federal investigations and even prosecutions of the Biden family if Donald Trump wins re-election, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Trump has vowed retribution against his enemies if he wins in November. House Republicans have struggled to show Biden has done anything illegal, but people close to Trump are still plotting to use the Justice Department against Biden and his family.
-
A source close to the Trump campaign said that "everything you have seen from the Biden DOJ," in terms of the charges against Trump, "you can expect to see from the Trump DOJ."
-
One Trump ally argued that there is precedent for a second Trump administration to investigate and prosecute the Bidens: the current federal charges against Trump.
[…]
Driving the news: House Republicans have alleged that Biden should be impeached because he illicitly benefitted from lucrative foreign deals arranged by his son Hunter.
-
Despite their difficulty proving that, Trump has said he thinks Biden should be prosecuted anyway — because Trump is being prosecuted now.
-
"By weaponizing the DOJ against his Political Opponent, ME, Joe has opened a giant Pandora's Box," Trump posted on Truth Social in January.
-
House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a fundraising email last month that "when President Trump returns to the White House, it's critical the new leadership at the DOJ have everything they need to prosecute the Biden Crime Family and deliver swift justice."
-
Comer also said on Fox News recently that if Attorney General Merrick Garland's Justice Department won't accept criminal referrals from House Republicans, "then maybe a Donald Trump Department of Justice will."
What was wrong for Biden to supposedly do, will suddenly become “right” when Trump does it?
Dark Skies on the Horizon is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Really, people?
There’s a certain level of entitlement here that is literally off the charts.
Trump repeatedly claims that “all these prosecutions wouldn’t be happening if he wasn’t running for President.”
Except that:
Jo @JoJoFromJerz
FACT: Cyrus Vance (NY DA at the time) began issuing subpoenas in the hush money payment case in August of 2019.
FACT: Fani Willis launched her investigation into Trump in 2021.
FACT: The United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack opened their investigation in July of 2021.
FACT: Letitia James opened her NYC business fraud investigation into Trump in 2019.
FACT: all of those investigations into Trump were undertaken BEFORE he ever announced he was running again. FACT: He’s not being indicted in the middle of his campaign, he’s campaigning in the middle of his indictments.
10:08 AM · Mar 27, 2024
The only prosecutions that started after Trump announced his run for president were those by Jack Smith because he wasn’t chosen to be special counsel until three days after Trump’s announcement. Most of them have nothing to do with his candidacy.
On the other hand, Devon Archer has testified that Joe Biden never had any conversations about Business with any of Hunter Biden’s partners.
Hunter Biden testified that he never involved his father in his business, ever. he testified that “10 for H to hold for the Big Guy” wasn’t written by him. One of his partners was suggesting cutting Joe into a deal because he wasn't Vice President anymore and Hunter states that he shut that idea down. Ultimately, Joe was not included in the contract. Joe is not included on any of Hunter’s contracts.
Hunter specifically testified as to why that was the case.
I am here today to provide the committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business, not while I was a practicing lawyer, not in my investments or transactions, domestic or international, not as a board member, and not as an artist, never.
You read this fact in the many letters that have been sent to you over the last year as part of your so-called impeachment investigation. You heard this fact when I said it weeks ago standing outside of this building. You heard this fact from a parade of other witnesses, former colleagues, and business partners of mine, including my uncle, who has testified before you in similar proceedings. And now, today, you hear this fact directly from me.
[…]
Q The whole thing is that the former Vice President is coming to meet potential -
A But he didn't, number one. You know that he didn't. Number two is that you know that I never involved him in any of my business. Number three is --
Q Well, that's --
A -- he never benefited from any of my business. Number four, you know there are no evidence of any transactions in which I sent money for my dad or my dad took action to benefit me or any of my businesses. You know all of those things. But you look at one text message out of context.
And when I say, Hey, my dad's going to be in town. He's also visiting my daughter, I'm going to have lunch, maybe we'll all get to see each other, because it's also with my uncle, I'd love him to meet my new partner, you say there's something wrong with that? I really mean it. He's out of office.
Q I mean, I think it raises questions.
A No, he's out of office. You're saying he can't do that. So when you -- when Jared Kushner flies over to Saudi Arabia, picks up $2 billion, comes back, and puts it in his pocket, okay, and he is running for President of the United States, you guys have any problem with that?
Mr. Gaetz. The clock has stopped.
Devon Archer, James Biden and Hunter Biden all agree — Joe was not involved in the business. Period.
More than that there was also the testimony from Giuliani associate Lev Parnas who stated that the allegations against Hunter were all concocted by Russian spies.
During an impeachment hearing into President Joe Biden over unfounded bribery allegations, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) questioned Parnas about the work he did with Giuliani back in 2019, shortly before he was indicted for making fraudulent campaign donations.
"Were you aware, was Mr. Giuliani aware, that these people were basically just doing the bidding of Vladimir Putin?" Raskin asked him.
"Absolutely," Parnas replied.
"So he had no hesitation about spreading lies that were concocted by Russian agents?" Raskin asked.
"As long as it fit the narrative," Parnas said.
"How were you and Giuliani able to take these false allegations, peddled by corrupt officials and Russian agents, and promote and amplify them here, in the United States?" he asked. "Weren't media groups skeptical of your claims?"
"Most media groups," Parnas acknowledged. "I'd probably say all, except for Fox and a few other right-wing media groups, didn't want to take that information. And that aggravated Rudy Giuliani and John Solomon and other players."
Parnas then pointed the finger at Fox News' Sean Hannity as someone who was particularly eager to launder such disinformation, while also singling out Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) for doing the same.
Parnas' claims about right-wing media being more receptive to Giuliani's overtures are backed up by the historical record.
In the fall of 2020, Giuliani pitched stories about Hunter Biden's laptop to the Wall Street Journal. When the Journal's reporters appeared skeptical of the claims he was making about the laptop potentially exposing criminal activity by Joe Biden, he then took the story to the New York Post, which promptly ran with it.
The laptop story was bullshit. The claim that Joe Biden had fired Shokin in order to protect Burisma and his son, is bullshit.
All of this came up during Trump’s first impeachment hearing with former State Dept Rep. George Kent and Ambassador Bill Taylor.
George Kent: The pervasive and long standing issue of corruption in Ukraine included exposure to a situation involving the energy company Burisma. The primary concern of the U.S. Government since 2014 was Burisma’s owner, Mykola Zlochevski, whose frozen assets abroad we had attempted to recovery on Ukraine’s behalf.
In early 2015 I raised questions with the deputy prosecutor general about why the investigation of Mr. Zlochevsky had been terminated based on our belief that prosecutors had accepted bribes to close the case.
Later, I became aware that Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma. Soon after that on a briefing call with the national security staff of the office of the Vice President in 2015, I raised my concern that Hunter Biden’s status as a board member could create the perception of a conflict of interest.
Let me be clear however, I did not witness any effort by any official to shield Burisma from scrutiny. In fact, I and other U.S. Officials consistently advocated resinstituting a scuttled investigation of Zlochevski, Burisma’s founder, as well as holding the corruption prosecutors who closed the case (Shokin) , to account.
Over 2018 and 2019, I became increasingly aware of an effort by Rudy Giuliani and his associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman to run a campaign to smear against Ambassador Yovanovich and other officials at the U.S. embassy in Kiev. The chief agitators on the Ukrainian side of this effort were those same corrupt former prosecutors I had encountered, particularly Yuri Litsenko and Victor Shokin.
They were now pending false information in order to extract revenge against those who had exposed their misconduct, including U.S. diplomats, Ukrainian officials and reform minded civil society groups in Ukraine.
During the last summer of 2019, I became alarmed as those effort bore fruit. They led to he ouster of Ambassador Yovanovich and hampered new efforts to establish rapport with the new Zelenski Administration. In mid August it became clear to me that Giuliani’s efforts to gin up politically motivated investigations were now infecting U.S. engagement with Ukraine, leveraging President Zelenski desire for a White House meeting.
Kent makes it clear that the corruption was on the part of Victor Shokin in his reportedly taking a bribe NOT to prosecute Zlochevsky — not in the idea that Hunter Biden or Joe Biden took a bribe to remove Shokin. And that Giuliani with henchment Parnas and Fruman on hand, used lies and rumors generated by Shokin in revenge for his firing to push out Ambassador Yovanovich.
Ambassador Marie Yovanovich also testified that she was forced out of her job by Rudy Giuliani working with Victor Shokin and Litsenko.
Schiff: At some point did you learn the Litsenko and Shokin were in contact with Rudy Giuliani?
Yovanovich: Yes.
Schiff: Did Giuliani participate in a decision that you took part in to deny Shokin a visa?
Yovanovich: Yes, that is what I was told.
Schiff: And that denial was based on Mr. Shokin’s corruption?
Yovanovich: Yes, that’s true.
Schiff: Was it Mr. Litsenko who coordinated with Mr. Guiliani to peddle false accusations against you as well as the Biden’s?
Yovanovich: Yes, that is my understanding.
Schiff: And were these smears also amplified by the President’s son Donald Trump Jr. on Fox?
Yovanovich: Yes. um, Yes, that is the case.
Schiff: In the face of the smear campaign did colleagues at the State Dept try to get a statement of support for you from Secretary Pompeo?
Yovanovich: Yes.
Schiff: Were they successful?
Yovanovich: No.
Schiff: Did you come to know that that wouldn’t issue such a statement because they feared it would be undercut by the president?
Yovanovich: Yes.
Schiff: And were you told that although you did nothing wrong you no longer had the confidence of the president and could no longer serve as Ambassador?
Yovanovich: Yes, that is correct.
It was also pointed out that the EU, IMF and members of the U.S. Senate including Dick Durbin and Ron Johnson wanted prosecutor Victor Shokin removed because he wasn’t investigating corruption.
Trump is now promising to do exactly what he tried to do before with Guiliani. Generate a false investigation of Joe Biden on the basis of false claims made by the people who were fired for their corruption.
They knew at the time that these claims about Hunter and Joe Biden were false because they were told exactly this by both Litsenko and Mykola Zlochevski.
Parnas: (Chapter 12) Everytime Giuliani and Litsenko has spoken about the Bidens he would answer that nothing had been found to incriminate them. Neither Joe nor Hunter Biden had done anything against the Ukrainian Constitution or local laws. There was no evidence of bribery or extortion that anyone could find, at the same time Litseno was worried he wouldn’t be able to stay in office if Poreshenko lost his bid for re-election, so he did what he could to stay on Trump and Guiliani’s good side to appease them.
He would sometimes make vague statements to media about Hunter and Joe Biden, but he never said they had committed any acts of corruption or any investigation was being opened. There was simply nothing he had to substantiate those claims.
By that point the BLT team was watching the Ukrainian Presidential elections and realized that Volodymyr Zelenski was probably going to win. The conversation shifted from Poreshenko to getting a promise from Zelenski that he would announce and investigation into the Bidens. Giuliani assumed because Zelenski was an actor and a comedian and not a politician he would naturally want to do anything he could to establish good relations with the U.S.
I was tasked in 2018 to go to Ukraine and get in contact with Zelenski.
This is the start of what ultimately became the request by Trump to Zelenski to start an investigation into the Biden’s even though there was no evidence of wrongdoing by either of them.
The claim that Shokin was pushed out by Biden in order to protect Burisma was false. Shokin is the one who had shut down the investigation into Zlochevski and Burimsa. Biden associate Devon Archer testified to this.
Also, Zlochevski told Guiliani directly that no one at Burisma had ever had a conversation with Joe Biden, and that Hunter Biden was innocent of the allegations against him.
Ultimately, Giuliani was not satisfied with the answers he got back on July 7, 2019. Asked, for example, whether Joe Biden, while vice president, had ever assisted Zlochevsky or Burisma “in any way with business deals or meetings with world leaders or any other assistance,” Zlochevsky replied curtly: “No.” Asked to detail any contacts he had with Joe Biden from 2013-2019, and whether Hunter ever facilitated any meetings, Zlochevsky replied: “No one from Burisma ever had any contacts with VP Biden or people working for him during Hunter Biden’s engagement.”
When Giuliani received this information from Zlochevsky he grew very upset and yelled “What is this bullshit? Nobody can see this, bury it.”
But this same information has long been transmitted by House Democrats to Chairman James Comer.
Jun 29, 2023
The GOP's latest conspiracy theories against Hunter Biden just completely fell apart — again.
Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin sent a letter to James Comer sharing the transcript of statements made by Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, to an associate of Rudy Giuliani’s directly contradicting allegations repeated in the FBI Form FD-1023 tipsheet, which the FBI made available to all Committee Members.
Republican Committee Members identified Mr. Zlochevsky as the source of the information relayed to the FBI by a confidential human source (CHS) in the Form FD-1023. As part of the 2019 impeachment inquiry against then-President Trump, the Committee received a transcript created by associates of Mr. Giuliani recording statements by Mr. Zlochevsky that squarely rebut these allegations. “Despite being interviewed as part of a campaign by Mr. Giuliani and his proxies in 2019 and 2020 to procure damaging information about the Biden family, Mr. Zlochevsky explicitly and unequivocally denied those allegations.
Specifically, Mr. Zlochevsky denied (1) that anyone at Burisma had ‘any contacts’ with then former Vice President Biden or his representatives while Hunter Biden served on the Burisma board, and (2) that former Vice President Biden or his staff ‘in any way’ assisted Mr. Zlochevsky or Burisma,” wrote Ranking Member Jamie Raskin in the letter. Here's an excerpt of Zlochevsky's statements: Q: “Please detail any contacts you had with VP Joe Biden and his office from 2013 through 2019,” one question asked. “Did Hunter ever facilitate any of those contacts?”
A: “NO ONE FROM BURISMA EVER HAD ANY CONTACTS WITH VP BIDEN OR PEOPLE WORKING FOR HIM DURING HUNTER BIDEN’S ENGAGEMENT."
At 20:48 in the last Parnas video, he makes the following further claims.
Lev Parnas states here in a letter to James Comer that he and Giuliani were told a story by a Burisma businessman named Vitoli Prusch[sp?] who claimed that during a meeting between Hunter Biden and the Khazaksan minister of foreign affairs, he became extremely intoxicated [ed. with alcohol and drugs] and incapacitated. While he was out Russian FSB agents, Russian Secret Police and [Burisma CEO] Zlochevsky's team copied the contents of his Laptop which was then compromised and manipulated by Russian Intelligence.
Giuliani was told that the laptop had embarrassing photos, but there was no evidence of financial crimes on it. Parnas states that It was only later that the idea of "finding" proof of financial crimes was introduced. He doesn’t give the exact date that the copying took place although it seems to be early in 2019. This is on top of the fact that the GRU hacked Burima’s email accounts.
Trump has been trying to gin up a false case against Joe Biden starting in 2018 and he has repeatedly failed. His minions in the House have failed. The key witness they had who claimed that he had “17 tapes” that prove that the Biden’s took a bribe from Zlochevski turns out to have lied, and also, he got this false information from Russian Intelligence.
Smirnov, 43, is facing charges of making false statements that were reportedly about President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. The longtime informant was a crucial witness in House Republicans' march to impeach the president.
In a 28-page memorandum filed Tuesday, Weiss argued Smirnov had the means to obtain a new passport because of his dual Israeli-American citizenship.
"While Smirnov has no ties to the community in Las Vegas, what he does have is extensive foreign ties, including, most troublingly and by his own account, contact with foreign intelligence services, including Russian intelligence agencies, and has had such contacts recently. Smirnov could use these contacts to resettle outside the United States," Weiss warned.
The document said Smirnov admitted links to "someone with ties to a particular Russian intelligence service."
"Smirnov's contacts with Russian officials who are affiliated with Russian intelligence services are not benign," the court was advised. "During his custodial interview on February 14, Smirnov admitted that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story about Businessperson 1."
"Businessperson 1" lines up with Hunter Biden's description, according to reports.
This is all bullshit.
Every bit of it.
It can’t possibly lead to a valid conviction - all the defense would need to do is replay all this testimony, there is far more than enough evidence for reasonable doubt. All it will only be an annoyance, it’s not a serious case.
And besides, if Biden loses - he won’t be running for President again so the only point here is to be a petulant vengeful punk-ass bitch.
Somehow, that fits Trump.
You can join me debating the issues and the facts inside the belly of the beast on my Facebook Group: Army for Truth.
Have a listen to my new Vocal Cover — "Girl On Fire" originally by Alicia Keys and check out my new Patreon where you can download copies of my covers and original songs. You can also stream tracks from my previous Solo CD from ReverbNation.
And You can send Funds to Support me via Paypal